(laughs)

This is for dark times.

Hi, I'm Alvin.

- Hi, I'm Chris.

- And we're gonna swap some snacks today.

- So, I'm from Curacao,

it's a Dutch Caribbean island

right off the coast of Venezuela.

Today I'm excited to show Alvin

some of my snacks.

- I'm Chinese American,

but I was born and raised in California.

I might not have the most traditional snacks,

but I'm also excited to show Chris

what I like to eat when I grew up.

All right Chris, let's see what we brought for each other.

- Let's do it.

- On three? - On three.

- One, two, three.

Whoa, what is that?

- This is a cashew nut treat.

How does it look to you?

- [Alvin] It looks like a pile of like dough,

what's this called?

- Actually I want you to try to pronounce it.

So it's this right here.

- Tenta-lira?

- That's actually pretty good.

- Okay.

- It's called Tentalaria.

- Oh see, he has the cool accent.

(laughs) I can't do that.

'Tenta' means to tease

and 'laria' means above.

Tease above?

- Doesn't make sense.

What do you have there?

- What do you think think this is?

- I see there's a bagel there,

I'm not sure what that is,

is that chicken nuggets on top of it?

- Yeah, so this is a everything bagel

with like a little bit of cream cheese

and Dino nuggets.

So this is something I would come home

and as a kid you just like wanna make stuff taste good

- Right, right.

- And you don't really care how bad it is for you

so I would eat this after I came home from school.

- That's cool 'cause I brought my snack,

it's like a traditional Curacaoin thing

but yours is like your own.

- Mine is not traditional by any means.

All right, should we swap?

- Let's do it.

All right let's swap, here we go.

Oh, it kind of feels like dough,

like if I made pasta dough and let it sit out

and it dried up too long overnight,

that's kind of what it feels like.

- What does it taste like?

- Kind of like marzipan,

when there's like nuts, sugar,

it does feel and taste familiar

like nut paste we have in China,

so it's good, I like it.

- Oh, that's exciting.

- I'm gonna go ahead and try yours, Alvin.

This is your creation nobody else's

I like that.

- Yeah, it is 100 percent mine.

- You know this reminds me of a nugget bread

that I would eat at high school.

- Nugget bread, okay.

- At the canteen they would sell nugget in bread.

- Oh, cool.

- So, this is essentially what it is,

without the cream cheese

I think that's a good addition.

- Great. - That's nice, I like that.

- I'm glad that something unorthodox

can remind you of something you grew up with.

- Yeah, that's awesome,

I like it.

- Yeah well can't believe he liked it.

- So if you were to name this dish Alvin,

what would it be called?

- The heartburn era.

(laughs)

Next snack?

- Next snack, let's do it.

- All right, one, two, three.

- Reveal, wow.

- That's cool.

- [Alvin] Kind of looks like

it's like some sort of peanut sugar candy.

- Right, that's essentially what it is.

- Okay, cool.

- I want you to try to pronounce the name

because that's the most exciting part.

- Pan-secu?

- That's pretty good, it's Panseiku.

- Panseiku.

- Yeah, 'pan' means bread

which doesn't make sense again,

I don't know what 'seiku' means.

This you can also get it at the market,

about a dollar or two.

- So is this something that

you kinda had growing up?

- Actually no, 'cause this is one of the snacks

that I did not like

growing up at all.

- [Alvin] Oh.

- Yeah, so you would get it always at parties too.

As a kid I didn't think it looked appetizing,

so I wouldn't eat it.

Now I think it's kind of cool.

Alvin, what do you have here for me?

I think this is minty chocolate.

- Yeah, so it's Andees chocolate,

it's kind of like these small little green bars,

it's like chocolate in the middle

there's like a mint-ish layer

and basically why I brought these is because

I grew up eating these without knowing what it was.

So, I would always look forward to going to Olive Garden

because they had these.

Excitedly eating your pasta and like waiting

for the cheque to come so that you get

the little green chocolates

and 'cause they were so good.

- Right, so this was basically your main entree for.

- Yeah, I was like, can we go to Olive Garden?

Not because I wanted pasta,

because I wanted these chocolates.

- I'm excited to try this.

Can I go for it?

- So let's swap?

- Let's swap.

- Yeah.

All right, let's do it.

- Yeah, but you see the layers?

All right, here we go.

One, two.

(laughs)

This is good.

- Yeah, this is good.

- It tastes like something my grandpa used to make.

In Chinese cooking,

some dishes involve boiling peanuts.

It's a very specific taste.

- That's awesome, it's a good in between

what you identified it as when you saw it,

but then when you tasted it,

it's something more nostalgic.

- How's that?

- A lot of nostalgia here today.

- Unexpected nostalgia from treats that we've never eaten.

- That's wonderful,

this is great, this is wonderful.

I want more.

- Yeah, it's like cleansing,

you kind of want to eat more.

Next one?

- Next one. - Let's do it.

All right, snack number three.

- Let's do it in

one, two, three.

- Whoa.

- Yeah, what does it look like to you?

- It looks like a steak.

(laughs)

Like I can tell,

if I look closer there's a lot of sesame

maybe another like sugar based like candy

where you kind of mix it together

and you get nutty and sweet flavors,

does that sound about right?

- That is exactly what it is.

With some sesame seeds in there as well.

This I'm very excited for you to pronounce Alvin.

- It's spelled Z-J-O-Z-J-O-L-I.

Zjozjoli?

- Perfect!

- No, is that right?

- That's exact, zjozjoli.

- No way, wow!

- Right, you got it right.

- Thanks, I'm glad I was kinda kidding,

but all right.

- That's it.

- I'll have one Zjozjoli, please.

- So I was in Curacao and I was asked,

hey, are you still in Curacao?

Bring some snacks,

so I just shopped some and I brought them here.

I'm excited to taste this one too.

- Yeah that's awesome.

So have you had this at all?

- I have had it but not recently.

- Okay, so it'll be like awesome for you too.

- It'll be awesome for me, too.

- Great, I'm excited.

- What do you have here, Alvin?

- What do you think it is?

- This looks like macaroni in there,

is this cilantro?

- That's not parsley.

- Okay.

Ground beef?

- Yeah.

It's Kraft and ground beef.

It's weird to say this is a snack,

but I would eat this when I come home from school

I was a very large and plump kid

so this was a snack,

and I still ate dinner after this.

- Alright, yeah.

Let's swap.

All right Chris, what's the best way to eat this.

You have to cut it first.

You're gonna have a hard time doing so, but

- Oh.

(laughs)

- [Chris] Okay.

- Oh, man.

This is some hard rock.

All right.

Oh, no the paper towel got stuck.

(laughs)

Oh no, Alvin you're ruining this entire operation.

- I wonder what zjozjo means now.

- That's the sound I'm gonna make when I realize

I got this paper stuck.

zjozjoli!

(laughs)

No!

All right I'm gonna try this now.

Oh, that's (mumbles) - What do you say?

It's like sesame seeds and sugar

but both are very toasted,

so the sugar is caramelized pretty high

so you get like not a burnt,

but a caramel-y, almost like smoky-ish sugar flavor,

kind of sticks to your teeth, though,

but that's the fun of it,

just like the paper towel.

For this, you kinda got to mix it up a bit,

cause I would just kind of throw things

and as a kid you just gotta mix it up.

The bowl's kinda full but

you know you just kinda gotta get in there

and wow, I cannot believe I would eat

that whole thing as a kid,

oh my god.

- No, this is good, I like it,

as you said it's exactly what you think it would taste like.

Is this ground beef or ground turkey?

- It's ground beef.

- Yeah, I'm vegan.

- Oh, s***.

(beep)

- Just kidding.

(laughs)

- That scared me,

I got scared for a second.

All right, last snack?

- Last snack, let's do this.

- Ready? - On three.

- One, two, three.

Oh, cool.

- You have some uncured ham there, too

with some cream cheese.

- Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

- That's awesome.

- I love how mine is just so obvious and blatant

and yours is actually cool and interesting.

- What is that?